What are the advantages of having Poser with lightwave? Is it better to have? Eisier? Harder? What really is poser?

gazmon

12-15-2003, 05:44 AM

I have poser 4 and its purely to create characters (mainly human and not really cartoony). Daz3d.com have many extra characters with more flexibility on their website for poser such as Michael and Victoria. It is possible to export Poser figures for lightwave but I have found some issues with high polygon counts and rips and cracks in the models. Poser is good fun if you want to mess around with figure animation but since I got lightwave I prefer to build characters from scratch.
Hope that helps!
Gaz

UEI

12-15-2003, 06:20 AM

So would you say that Poser could be used for mainly background characters, in like a city scene? It's still a very helpfull tool to have right?

meshmaster

12-15-2003, 06:30 AM

Poser is definitely looked down on in some parts of the industry, but it could be used for background people, etc... Personally, I think that Motion Builder is what Poser tried to be but never lived up to... get MB, Poser and Lightwave and you have a super combination to get stuff done! :)

gazmon

12-15-2003, 09:06 AM

yes, very useful for scenes full of people and a great tool for the price - Poser 5 looks like its a big improvement over 4 with better looking hair and characters, not sure about how compatible it is with lightwave tho. Good for still images if you want to composite with others in photoshop.
Gaz

meshmaster

12-15-2003, 11:31 AM

export as obj...

UEI

12-15-2003, 02:34 PM

And for Anime style productions with them as the background people? Would they do the job or look a bit different? Or I would have to make some kind of modifications? Who's making a Anime here do you know?

T-Light

12-15-2003, 08:19 PM

Hello

If you're thinking of using them together (poser 4 not 5) you'll also need the poser 4 pro pack. Last time I looked poser 5 didn't have the wherewithall to export full animations to other packages.

As Gazmon already mentioned, daz3d.com really is the place for high quality meshes - the ones that come with poser really look dated. If you go for Vic3 with full body pack - head pack etc, you should be able to produce something very manga like with a high enough poly count to make a high quality render within LW.

I went through all these options a couple of years back, I needed a fast character setup with very quick output, got pulled in to a poser upgrade offer with computer arts and went with it. Unfortunately, as much as I like Lightwave, Character setup and rigging - (pre LW8) is a bit of a nightmare. It's not that LW can't produce the results - it can, it's just takes a lifetime to get there.

There is another option due out soon from Daz, they're creating their own character animation package which will soon have optional plugins for external animation packages (eg LW).

You should also remember that a character created using subdivision in LW will be much faster to manipulate / view etc within LW than a poser scene - Vic 3 weighs in at about seventy to eighty thousand polys - (whatever you do - Don't try to animate clothing on a poser model of this size using LW Motion Designer - Unless you're current computer's a Cray :D )

OK, I'm rambling, here we go...

1) Daz models running through poser will give good enough results to use as background animations although this would be a waste of rendering time due to the high poly count.

2) Because of the high poly count, the good models can be used as foreground models with one proviso - Poser models can't bend like lightwave models (lw has far better tools for weight mapping (presise skin deformation etc)), so watch those arm/shoulder/knee joints.

Other than that...
Happy rendering

:)

ps - Another option is to wait for LW 8...:cool:

UEI

12-16-2003, 01:30 PM

Personally,
I dont like buying other pplz models. I'd rather learn how to model so I can make mine own stuff, but if Poser will alow me to use a default templet and allow me to modify it at my will to the figure that I want then I'll use it. Question, if I were to model certain parts of a character my self, I could use these models for later use for other characters to create my own character sets? How would I combine the number of objects together?
I've heard about Daz3D Studio. Looks promising. Got to keep an eye out for that. The only thing that I'm woried about so far as what you've guys told me was the high polygon count on the characters, and the dated figures, and in somecases, the non smoothed sections that you've persribed. But if I were to first convert the figure to lightwave format and edit it in lightwave, that would take away most of the problem right?

T-Light

12-18-2003, 05:44 AM

OK,

Don't do it. Don't build models in Lightwave for conversion into poser.

If your even thinking of building your own bodies/body parts to create your own characters, then you really should stick with LW all the way through. Yes, you'll have to rig your character in LW, but you'll still have to do that in poser, and poser just doesn't have the animation/bone/deformation control of LW.

The only reason a LW'er would ever have to use poser is for raw speed...

and that's it, it does what it says on the tin...there are no other benefits.

Daz spend an enormous amount of time creating their models (In Lightwave actually!), with a huge amount of endomorphs for massive variablity.
When these models are loaded into poser you simply have to inject the necessary morphs into your character, twist the dials to get the look you want (Very Fast - Very Variable), save your character model... and that's it, your off... Load your custom character, Animate, Export.

If you're serious about building your own models for poser you'll need...

1) A complete understanding of the poser model format (polygon breaks, poser uv's, etc)
2) A text editor that can handle file sizes into the multi megabytes.
3) Every poser modelling tutorial you can get your hands on.
4) The patience of a saint.
5) Bandages and headache tablets.
6) A wall with enough space to repeatedly bang your head off.

As you've said from the beginning, you would prefer to build your own models, You've really answered your own question.

You don't need Poser.

Your time would be better spent practising your model making and animation skills within lightwave. :)

It's your call :cool:

ps. You can still buy and import Daz models into LW, you don't need poser to do it, although you will need to rig and animate the characters yourself and you'll still have to deal with the large polygon count.

meshmaster

12-18-2003, 06:50 AM

last I checked, some of the newer versions have bvh support.... which is animation.... not sure if it supports full animation or just poses, but it's probably good for rudimentary stuff.... I have Poser 3 and I have successfully used as a proportion tool... export characters from Poser, put them in background layer in modeler, and then build my own lower rez characters in the forground, using the poser character as a sort of template to make sure that feet are not too big, etc... it's really just acting like a 3 - Dimensional Background template... sort of like a connect the dots sort of drawing in the third dimension... I wouldn't say use Poser characters on real projects except for this sort of way, or maybe for a few background characters that are never really close enough to camera to be seen very well... and yes, do the rigging in Lightwave.

T-Light

12-19-2003, 07:38 AM

Hello Meshmaster

It's full BVH animation, and it's good at it too. :)

wowens

12-30-2003, 06:28 AM

Greenbriar Studios has a set of 3D tools for importing Poser figures and animation into LightWave. However, as mentioned earlier, the poly count is very high. The still image capabilities are excellent. Greenbriar Studios posted one of my "Freak" renderings on their Web site -- http://www.greenbriarstudio.com/3D/. I'm now testing their Animation Loader plug-in. The animations I've produced are looking good. I need to spend more time on the weight maps. The deformation around the figure's joints could use some work.

prospector

12-30-2003, 06:41 AM

I got the Greenbriar plugs (well I didn't but will end up with them anyways)

Wife got me LW8 for Christmas and I got her the 2 Plugs From Greenbriar CR2 Loader and Animation loader and the 2 people Vicki and Michael..But she doesn't have LW or Poser so she will give them to me...It's the 'thought' that counts right?:D

And with LW8 and the point manipulation in Layout to make morphs, it should 'clean up' the body joint folds rather nicely.